As the wind whistled quietly, the moonlight made patterns on the forest floor. Ginny looked down from where she swung suspended from a vine almost thirty feet above the ground in the Forbidden Forest. Her eyes were sore and swollen from crying. She'd been hanging there for a day and a half, and her arms and hips ached from where the vine was tightly wrapped around her middle. "How did I let myself get into this?" she wondered to herself.

She'd replayed the scene countless times since she saw it yesterday. She'd heard Ron comment on how close Harry and Hermione had been acting lately, but it hadn't really been real until she saw them after lunch yesterday. The way he'd looked at her with such adoration, the way he'd kissed her lips so gently, the way he'd smelled her hair when he'd hugged her before they parted for classes. They were oblivious to her watching them, but she couldn't focus on anything else. She felt like her heart had crawled up her throat and she would vomit it out any second. Harry was in love with Hermione. Her Harry. Well, to be fair, he'd never really been hers, but she always knew they would be together in the end. Yes, she'd had a silly schoolgirl crush on him before she came to Hogwarts, but after her first year, she knew. He'd found her in the Chamber of Secrets, he'd saved her life. He was her hero, her knight in shining armor. This wasn't right. She was his fair maiden, and they were supposed to find a happily-ever-after together. He wasn't supposed to fall in love with sodding Hermione! Ginny knew everyone thought her crush on Harry had passed. Sure she'd dated Michael and Dean, and even Neville for that week, but deep in her heart she knew they'd never come to anything. It was always Harry. And now he'd found someone else.

After witnessing that scene she couldn't go to the rest of her classes. She had to be alone. She couldn't stand to be around anyone. She knew that the second she looked into anyone's face she would fall apart, and she knew what they'd do. They'd give her pitying looks and tell her that it was for the best, and they'd secretly despise her for being foolish and weak. She knew that would be the straw that broke the camel's back. It was bad enough that Harry had abandoned her for another, but to have him pity her as well would be too much. She had to get away, to where no one would think to follow her. And so she had fled to the Forbidden Forest.

In her head she knew it was foolish and dangerous, but even so her feet carried her further and further into the dark and quiet woods. Through a window of glassy tears she tore along the heavy underbrush. Her quiet sobs seemed to shatter the silence. Her head and chest felt like they would explode at any second, when suddenly she'd tripped over a root, and the next thing she knew she found herself waking up surrounded by centaurs. They didn't notice that she'd woken up right away as they were in a heated conversation. It didn't take Ginny long to surmise that she was the topic of discussion.

"... invaded our forest for the last time. Clearly these humans have no respect for us. It's time a message was sent!"

"Peace, Bane!" A centaur with a chestnut body and long black hair put his hand on the shoulder of the black-bodied centaur who had been speaking. "This one is just a foal. She may be lost or..."

"Or what, Magorian? Out for a gallop? Why is she this far into the woods? These humans prance about our land as if it was theirs, and I have had enough of their arrogance." Bane reared up on his hind legs and shook his head so that even his beard swung. "You call this one a foal; however she is not so young. Look at her, she is nearly..."

At this point all of the centaurs turned to face Ginny. All at once they realized that she was listening.

"Well human, finally you awaken." Bane looked at her with an icy glare. "And why, pray tell, have you strayed so far into our domain."

Ginny felt her throat constrict almost painfully. She tried to speak, but in her fear could only emit a small squeaking noise. This only seemed to fuel Bane's anger.

"You see, Magorian! She has so little respect for our kind that she will not even address us properly, but lies on the ground with her mouth hanging open! Well, she will learn respect soon enough." Bane then let out a sound that could only be described as a hybrid between a roar and a whinny. Ginny felt several strong hands grab at her before darkness claimed her mind once more.

When Ginny woke again she found herself in her present ordeal. Tied tightly with a vine, she was hanging from a tree in the middle of the Forbidden Forest. She had tried wriggling out of her bindings, but the knots were tied by capable centaur hands, and no human could untie them. She had screamed for hours until her voice had gone hoarse. She had wept and wept until her eyes had felt that they would simply slip out of her head. Then, in darkest despair, she had resigned to her fate. No one would come to rescue her. No one even knew that she was here, and this is the last place that they would look for her. And even if they were looking in the forest, there was little hope that in the vastness of the forest they would find her location before some creature of the forest had made a meal of her. Besides, why should they want to find her anyway? She was just Ron's little sister, the youngest Weasley, the sixth year with the red hair. Even her hero had found another princess. There was nothing to do now but trace the patterns of the moonlight on the forest floor as she waited whatever end the gods had in store.

Suddenly, off to her right, the silence was broken. There was a soft crunching sound; it sounded like people walking through the underbrush. Ginny’s heart leapt as she looked towards the sound. They had come looking for her! She would be saved! Maybe Harry had realized that she was missing, and maybe he would realize that he was in love with her and not Hermione! The thoughts zoomed through Ginny’s head at light speed… then all screeched to a halt as she saw the source of the noise.

Three enormous spiders were slowly approaching the spot where she hung. Even if Ginny had wanted to scream, it was out of the question as her throat had got dry and closed off in one swift motion. Her eyes grew impossibly wide and her breathing stopped altogether. Although she didn’t share Ron’s fear of spiders, the sight of these three were enough to make her a lifelong arachnophobic! The trio seemed to be following a scent, and all at once looked directly up where Ginny swung helplessly. The scream that stilled in her throat before came out full force as the spiders made their way to the tree trunk. Her breathing quickened as one of them advanced up the tree.

“Of all the horrid ways to die, I’m going to be eaten by giant spiders!” Ginny thought to herself. “Why couldn’t the centaurs have just clubbed me to death while I was unconscious? Or falling off my broom at a Quidditch match? I’m sure that would have been less painful than this!” The spider was fifteen feet away. “Bloody Ron! Bloody Harry and Hermione! Why couldn’t they have come looking for me? Their probably off having a grand time while I’m about to get eaten!” Ten feet. Ginny started sobbing. “Mum, I’m sorry. Dad, I shouldn’t have run into the forest. I’m so, so sorry.” Five feet. All coherent thoughts in Ginny’s mind melted into a swirling mass of terror and sadness. She squeezed her eyes shut and awaited the pierce of the enormous fangs.

“Expelliarmus!!”

Ginny’s eyes popped open just in time to see the spider fly backwards into a tree across the small clearing.

“Vitis Abrumpere!”

The next thing Ginny knew the vine had snapped and she was falling towards the ground. She landed on someone below with an “Omfph!” out of both of them, and then they both scrambled to their feet. Her savior shoved a wand in her hand and they stood back to back to take on the other two spiders. Within a matter of seconds, they had stunned their foes and were sprinting out of the forest as fast as they could manage.

As Ginny raced out of the forest into the light of the full moon, she collapsed onto the grass weeping for joy. There was Hogwarts, and the lake, and Hagrid’s cabin, and all the wonderful things that an hour age she thought she’s never see again. She stood up quickly and ran over to her savior to embrace him, and stopped short.

“Malfoy?!” Ginny’s mouth hung open, and she could feel her shock in her face. “You saved me!?!”

Ginny noticed a look of hurt flicker through his eyes, then his customary smirk returned and he said, “Don’t thank me all at once, Weasley. People will talk.”

Ginny’s face colored as she realized her rudeness and she looked at the ground. “No, it’s not that I…I mean…I mean; I’m just surprised that you’d… deign to save a Weasellette.” She’d meant it to be a joke, but the laugh that she’d meant to follow stuck in her throat.

Malfoy smiled a sad half-smile and said, “Well, I was in the neighborhood.” Then he turned and started walking towards the castle.

Ginny watched him for a moment, and then ran to catch up to him. “How did you know where to find me?”

He stopped suddenly, and turned to look at her. She looked straight into his sea-grey eyes, and felt them pierce her to the soul. His eyes that had so often before looked at her and her family and friends with contempt, hatred, and bitterness now looked with something she’d never seen in them before. It was like compassion, concern, and…what else? What was all that doing in Malfoy’s eyes as he looked into her own?

He let out a sigh before he said, “Because I knew it was the last place they’d look for you, and the first place you’d go after the show Potter and Granger put on after lunch yesterday. Of course your scream helped me with the finer details…”

“You saw me watching Harry and Hermione yesterday?” Ginny asked as she cut him off by grabbing his arm.

Draco smiled the same sad half-smile. “I see more of you than you think…Weasellette.” The usual biting tone that accompanied that insult was nowhere to be found. In fact, Draco said it with the gentlest tone Ginny had ever heard in her life. Draco then kissed her on the forehead and turned again to continue the ascent up to the castle.

Ginny stood glued to the spot watching him leave. Her head was swimming in confusion. “Malfoy watches me? But why? He hates me and my family, right? Then why did he save me? And why did he kiss me just then? And what was that look in his eyes about? Was he…?” Suddenly Ginny gasped in mid-thought. She’d seen that look before. She’d seen it when her Mum watched her Dad hurry off to work. She’d seen it in about a hundred of those muggle movies she had a secret addiction to. And she’d seen it yesterday when Harry and Hermione looked into each others eyes. Draco Malfoy was in love with her!! But that didn’t make any sense. He was her enemy, her nemesis, her…hero. Realization dawned on Ginny. Draco Malfoy had saved her life. Draco, not Harry. All this time she had been pining over Harry; had Draco been pining over her? There was only one way to find out.

“DRACO!!” Draco spun around and watched her sprint towards him. When she arrived in front of him, she threw arms around his neck and looked into his eyes, searching for whatever she could find in them. “Thank you for saving me.” She closed her eyes and kissed him softly on the lips. She was about to pull away when she felt his arms tighten around her waist as he drew her forward to deepen the kiss. Her sides were still sore from where she had been bound, but she didn’t dare to stop the kiss. Her mind whirled as in this moment she found everything she had never found with Harry. Draco was passionate, and gentle, and ferocious, and most of all, he was hers.

They finally broke away and looked into each others eyes. Ginny’s smiled erupted on her face.

“My hero!”